President Obama used his weekly Saturday radio address to mark the 131st anniversary of Labor Day. He swore his "highest priority" is to "reverse forces that have conspired - for decades - against American workers." Yakkity-yak.
Don't believe that demagoguery. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that workers - especially low-wage workers - are losing ground under Obama.
After 4-1/2 years of the Obama presidency, an unprecedented number of Americans have given up looking for work, wages are stagnating, low-wage earners are suffering most and the U.S. is fast becoming a nation of part-time workers.
- Payroll tax hike: American workers got clobbered on Day 1 of 2013, when the president engineered a "fiscal cliff" agreement with Congress that, among other things, boosted the Social Security payroll tax rate - the amount deducted from a worker's paycheck - from 4.2% to 6.2%. A worker earning $30,000 a year immediately felt the pinch, with $50 a week less in take-home pay.
